James Steele Mayor of Port Fairy 1907-1908 also a Director of the Southwestern Co-operative Milk and Trading Company Ltd formed to guarantee the supply of milk to the proposed Glaxo Milk Factory in 1919. The first milk delivery was made by Mr Steele when the factory opened in October 1920.James Steele Mayor of Port Fairy 1907-1908 and then being involved in the establishment of the Glaxo factory in Port Fairy Black and white portrait photograph james steele, mayor, port fairy, glaxo, milk, factory, southwestern co-operative milk and trading company ltd

This badge was issued in 1966 to a member of the committee of the Nestles Cricket Club in Dennington (Warrnambool). The Nestles Milk Factory was established at Dennington in 1911, being one of the few Nestles factories at the time to be opened outside of Europe. During World War One and the 1920s the Dennington Nestles Factory was the world’s largest milk condensery and at its peak in the 1960s and 70s was employing 800 people. It produced the drink, Milo and the coffee, Nescafe (this latter ceasing in 2000). In 2005 the Nestles Factory was taken over by the New Zealand firm, Fonterra and it is due to cease business entirely late in 2019. The Nestles Factory encouraged and sponsored several social and sporting clubs, including the Nestles Cricket Club and the Nestles Rowing Club. The Nestles Cricket Club commenced in 1944 and has been a part of the Warrnambool and District Cricket Association competition since that time. It still operates today under the same name and includes a women’s team. This item is of interest as a memento of Nestles Cricket Club, a prominent cricket team in Warrnambool today.This is a shield-shaped metal badge with a red and gold background, an image in yellow of cricket bats and stumps and two decorative patterns and gold-coloured printing. A circular number has been attached to the lower part of the badge. This is detachable. A bar with gold-coloured edging and a red background and gold-coloured printing is attached to the badge by a metal ring. The back of the bar has a metal clip.Committee Nestles Cricket Club 66 K.G.Luke Melb. nestles milk factory, dennington, nestles cricket club, history of warrnambool

Colour photograph of the Yarragon Dairy.2017, yarragon, dairy, milk factory, butter factory

Colour photograph of Murray Goulburn at Tangambalamb.milk, factory, murray goulburn, tangambalamba

Whistle used to mark lunch time and finish of day shifts at the Glaxo Factory from the 1920's to the 1980'sThis Glaxo factory whistle played a significant role in the fabric of the populace of Port Fairy signalling lunch time and end of the working day from 1929 to 1980. Cylindrical Brass Steam Whistle with square openings in either side and thread on basecommerce, signals, glaxo, glaxo - welcome, glaxo smith kline, milk factory, glaxo wellcome, gsk, pharmaceutical

Glaxo's Port Fairy Factory was built in 1929 as a milk factory it had a tin shop where the tins were manufactured and the milk was dried and sold as some of the first formula milk for babieslarge tin with printed information "Glaxo" progressive milk food for older infants enriched with Vitamin D Blue bands and silverGlaxo Progressive milk food for older infants enriched with Vitamin D Young or delicate babies should have Glaxo No 1. Table of quantities and directions for useglaxo, factory, princes highway, manufacturer, milk, baby food

This glass milk bottle held one pint of milk and was filled in an assembly line at a milk factory. It would have had a paper top. Milk in the mid 20th century was delivered daily to households in glass bottles and left at the front door or door step. The commercial production of milk and other milk products in Victoria dates back to the 19th century with the Western District still having an important dairying industry. Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory, situated at Allansford, commenced operations in 1888 and still operates today. There are other milk-related factories in the Warrnambool area at Dennington and Koroit. This bottle is of interest as an example of the type of milk bottles used in the 20th century before the advent of plastic and cardboard cartons.This is a clear glass bottle with four rounded sides, a short neck and a round opening at the top. One Pintdairying in the warrnambool area, history of warrnambool

The North-Eastern Dairy Company was established on 14th December 1892 as a butter factory and built in 1893. In 1928 a new butter factory was built and a milk products factory in 1952. Whole milk sales commenced in 1951, with pasteurised, homogenised milk in both bottles and cartons being sold in the 1980's. Devondale / Murray Goulburn was established in 1950. Cartons enabled the safe transportation and storage of milk. The North East Dairy Company enabled the dairy farmers in the Kiewa Valley to send their milk and milk products eg. cream to the factory at Kiewa. The factory bought its own cream carting vehicles during WW1. The 'full cream / homogenised / pastuerised / milk' is an example of the milk available in the 1980's as many different varieties of ingredients followed in later years.Blue, red & white waterproof sealed cardboard box used for storing fresh milk from the Kiewa factory 'Murray Goulburn'. The large box contains 2 litres and the smaller box, 1 litre. Each of the 4 faces have print - 2 have the title, 1 has advertising and 1 has instructions on how to store the carton of milk2 litre - Use by Date stamped at the top: 'Un Ed Oct 19' 1 litre - Use by Date stamped at the top: 'Ned Feb. 13'milk, murray goulburn, kiewa butter factory, kiewa milk products

Supplier identification gate sign used to identify a farm for milk collection by factory milk tankers. The sign showed the factory supplier's name and farm number. EJ (Ted) Delaney farmed at Nirranda South and was a company director for several years.Beige steel supplier identification gate sign with green lettering and Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory Co Ltd logo printed on top left hand corner.WCBF E.J.DELANEY 211/ Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory Co Ltd. Established 1888rural industry, agriculture, allansford, delaney ej (ted), warrnambool cheese and butter factory co ltd, milk suppliers, dairying, signs

This window was removed from the Marcus Saltau House building in the Warrnambool and District Base Hospital when the building was demolished in 2009. Marcus Saltau House was erected in 1938 to provide for intermediate, private and midwifery patients. The builder was Ernie Harris of Warrnambool. The building commemorated the work of Marcus Saltau who was on the Warrnambool Hospital committee for over forty years and the President of that committee for thirty years. Marcus Saltau (1869-1945) was a Warrnambool produce merchant and politician involved in many Warrnambool ventures, including the establishment and development of the Warrnambool Woollen Mill and the Nestles Milk Factory at Dennington. The Jean Buick Saltau Maternity Ward at the Warrnambool Hospital was established by Marcus Saltau in 1928 in memory of his first wife. This window is retained as a memento of a significant building in Warrnambool that no longer exists.This is a circular window with four triangular panels of glass contained within a white painted ridged wood frame.marcus saltau house warrnambool, marcus saltau, ernie harris warrnambool, jean buick saltau maternity ward, warrnambool woollen mill

This is a can used for storing milk at a dairy farm for transport to the local butter, milk or cheese factory. It comes from a farm (number 16) in Dennington, a settlement and now a suburb west of Warrnambool. It may have been supplying milk to the Nestles factory at Dennington by a truck or taken to a Nestles depot nearby. The Nestles factory was established in Dennington in 1907 and closed in 2005. This can is an interesting memento of dairying practices in the early to mid 20th century.This is a metal can with a circular base tapering to an open top. It has two handles on the side and a circular lid with a handle. It has a stencil on the side. The entire can is rusted.Den 16milk can, dairying in warrnambool district, nestles factory dennington

These two bottles have contained milk sold by the Warrnambool firm of Antarctic Ice Pty Ltd. in the mid 20th century.In the 1930s a pasteurizing plant was set up in Warrnambool in conjunction with an ice works in Kepler Street known as Antarctic Ice (Good and Stevenson). This firm had secured a milk supply from farmers in the Warrnambool region. Eventually Antarctic Ice was bought by the Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory and Kraft Foods as equal partners and the milk was marketed as Sungold. Also a farmer named Kaye Ryan had set up a pasteurization plant in East Warrnambool (Raglan Parade/Verdon Street) in opposition to Antarctic Ice and Sungold. Kraft and Warrnambool Cheese and Butter bought out Ryan and moved Sungold operations to the Ryan site. Kraft Foods sold its share of Sungold to Warrnambool Cheese and Butter and in 1989 the milk factory was moved to the Allansford site of Warrnambool Cheese and Butter and Sungold continues there today.These bottles are of interest, firstly as examples of the half-pint milk bottles familiar to people living in the mid 20th century and secondly because they are good examples of the bottles used by an important Warrnambool business, Antarctic Ice. These are two clear glass bottles. When filled each bottle contained 10 fluid ounces or half a pint of milk. The bottles have a round base with a rounded body tapering slightly to a thick neck and a thick moulded top. The bottles when filled had a seal consisting of a circle of waxed cardboard that was pressed into a recess on the lip of the bottle. These lids are missing.The bottles have lettering impressed into the glass. ‘This bottle contains milk bottled for sale by Antarctic Ice Products Pty Ltd Warrnambool and always remains their property. It is loaned and cannot be legally used or sold by others.’ ‘Contents 10 ozs.’ ‘497’ milk production in warrnambool, antarctic ice pty ltd

This plan was for the sale of parcels of land from the Lerderderg Park Estate property in 1911. Advertising for the sale appeared in the Bacchus Marsh Express newspaper through July of 1911. The property was situated only a few kilometers from the township of Bacchus Marsh. The agents for the sale were L. A. Fairbairn & Co.Lerderderg Park Estate was a significant and early colonial property in the Bacchus Marsh area. This plan provides details about the first time the property was subdivided for sale. It is therefore documents an important moment in the history of this property and the broader trend of the subdivision of older and larger properties in the district.A single page paper plan showing allotments of land for sale from the Lerderderg Park property owned by John Wills. The parcels of land for sale are coloured in red.The Lerderderg River and Pyke's Creek Irigation Channel shown on the plan are in blue ink. The rest of the plan is a dark cream or beige colur with the text in black ink. The plan has been extensively annotated with hand-written notes indicating the names of people who purchased the various parcels of lands and the prices paid for those lands. Part of the top of the plan containing some text appears to be missing. The plan is pasted into a bound volume containing 76 maps or plans in total. Top: Have received instructions to Sell, account Mr John Wills, his renowned LERDERDERG PARK LANDS, so well and favourably known throughout the Commonwealth. In areas from 3 acres to 1276 acres. Every lot is either rich lucerne land (or portion now under lucerne) with some higher land adjoining Railway Station, and 2 Milk factories within 2 miles, absolutely the finest land in Victoria. Bottom: THIS IS THE FIRST SUBDIVISIONAL SALE of Rich Flats in Bacchus Marsh since the Pyke's Creek Scheme, and every lot is commanded by it. Only 32 miles from Melbourne.bacchus marsh victoria maps, land sales, lerderderg park estate, land subdivision

This photograph shows land clearing at Bendoc. From 1845 the Bendoc area was part of pastoral leases. In the 1850s alluvial gold was discovered in the Bendoc River. This was quickly exhausted, and a number of mines began successful reef operations. At the head of the river, the settlement of Clarkville clustered round several other mines. Many miners, including numbers of Chinese, sluiced the rivers. The population of the area was as high as 500 during this period. The township was surveyed in 1869 and the hotel built in 1870. This building was burnt down in the early 1900s and rebuilt. A school was also begun at this time. In the 1870s there was a decline in gold mining. Some miners selected land, which in many cases is still held by descendants. Dairying was common in the early days, supplying a butter factory at the New South Wales border, and a milk factory at Orbost in more recent times. Wheat was grown for the settlers' own use and ground at Bombala. Now beef cattle grazing is the main occupation. (info. from Victorian Places)This is a pictorial history associated with the early settlement of Bendoc in East Gippsland.A badly distorted black / white photograph of a horse drawn wagon, three men and two women clearing land.on back - "Clearing land at Bendoc"bendoc-land-clearing bendoc-early-settlement

This is a booklet of 24 pages. The front cover has a black and white photograph and black printing and the back cover has a colour photograph, a logo and black printing. The pages contain printed text and black and white and colour photographs. The booklet is stapled.non-fictionCentenary History of the Dennington Factorynestles factory dennington, fonterra factory dennington

This is a Nestle badge. Henri Nestle formed the Nestle Company in 1867 with the headquarters based in Switzerland. Today this company is the largest nutrition, health and wellness company in the world. Nestle Australia was established in 1908 and a Nestle factory was established in Dennington (Warrnambool) in 1911. At this time the name, Nestle, was retained but the factory was actually operated by the Anglo-Swiss Condensed Milk Company. The Dennington factory was for many years the world's largest milk condensery. In 1948 the factory began producing Nescafe coffee. In 2008, after 94 years of operations, the Dennington factory was sold to the New Zealand firm of Fonterra. This badge is of particular interest because of the many years of local association with the firm of Nestle (Dennington Factory).Circular 14 carat gold stud featuring a raised image of a bird feeding baby bird in a nest, twig and leaves.an text and a minute diamond.NESTLEnestle factory, dennington, anglo-swiss condensed milk company, warrnambool history

Orbost had its own milk distribution and butter factory from 1893 to 1969 when Gippsland Consolidated Milk Products took it over and became the new company. This company also included milk supplies from the Bairnsdale to Maffra region in Gippsland. Four years later, in 1973, this company changed to Gippsland Amalgamated Milk Products which included suppliers from Yarram, Foster, Traralgon and Heyfield. It is likely that this carton photo is from 1969-1973. Also, the quart fluid measurement gave way to Metric from 1971 onwards. Related to Orbost Butter Factory and its demise in the late 1960s.b/w photograph of a milk carton - 1 quart - Dairy Pride Milk1Quart net. Dairy Pride MILK. Homogenised & Pasteurised. A product of Gippsland Consolidated Milk Ltd. Maffra. Victoria.orbost, orbost butter factory, dairying history

This book contains information on milk and cream bottles and other dairy-related items. It includes photographs of local milk and butter factories – Warrnambool (Allansford), Grassmere, Koroit, Garvoc, Glenormiston and Byaduk and references to Warrnambool milk suppliers – Antarctic Ice, Tooram and H Lindsay. No details have been found on H. Lindsay, selling milk in the 1920 to 1940 period. Antarctic Ice had a pasteurising plant in Kepler Street in the 1930s and sold to Warrnambool Cheese and Butter and Kraft in partnership and milk was sold under the new label, Sungold Dairies. They then purchased the Kaye Ryan pasteurizing plant in Verdon Street. Kraft moved out of the partnership with Warrnambool Cheese and Butter and Sungold Dairies relocated to the Allansford factory site where they still operate today. Tooram was the name of the property established in the Allansford area by the pioneer settler, John Allan. By the 1860s Tooram had becme well-known for its cheese making and in the 1880s Tooram, owned by Thomas Palmer, had what was described as the finest dairy farm in Victoria. This book is of interest as it contains information on milk and cream bottles and dairy-related items and Warrnambool is the centre of an important dairying industry with the Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory in Allansford being the oldest existing dairy product factory in Australia. The book will be very helpful to researchers. This is a soft cover book of 224 pages. The cover has a red background with black printing and a colour image of five bottles and five other dairy-related items on the front cover and colour images of four bottles, a tin and three labels or signs on the back cover. The contents include text on milk and cream bottles and allied material and colour and black and white photographs. dairying in western district of victoria, warrnambool district dairying, history of warrnambool, sungold dairies, tooram

This local factory was typical of small butter factories in the 1890's in Western Victoria. It was established in 1894 when farmers brought their milk to the factory on horse drawn drays and carts and waited for their cream to be separated. The skimmed milk was mostly used by farmers to feed calves and pigs and the separated cream was manufactured into butter, some of which was exported to England. By 1910 this butter factory had an electricity generating plant called Mortlake Electricity which supplied both the factory and the township with power and this took precedence over the butter production which continued until 1926 when it was sold to the Electricity Commission. By 1930 the Butter Factory had a yearly turnover of 24,000 pounds sterling and in1935 it was producing 6 tons of butter weekly. But in 1936 the factory was sold to Glenormiston Cheese & Butter Factory who ceased operations. The manager's residence still remains in 2011 as does the remnants of the small timber butter factory (charcoal lined) and the double brick cheese room but the bluestone chimney has long gone. This complex is listed by Heritage Victoria Black and White Photograph Nonecheese factory, mortlake, butter factory

This butter ram appears to have been made locally and was probably hand-made at a local factory. It was used to ram or mould butter into 56 pound butter boxes for bulk supply or for later cutting up into smaller quantities. Warrnambool was, and is still today, the centre of an important dairying industry with several large milk, cheese and butter factories in the area. The Warrnambool Cheese and Butter Factory at Allansford is the oldest operating factory of this type in Victoria and was established in 1888. The production of butter in the area was greatly accelerated by the invention of refrigeration in the early 1880s, enabling butter to be transported overseas. Warrnambool had two butter box factories which both closed in the 1920s. Up to the mid 1950s the production of butter was largely a hand process.This butter ram is of considerable interest as an example of the early tools used in the local butter industry.This is a heavy solid wooden block in a rectangular shape with the top shaped in the form of a pyramidal base. The edges of the base are worn from constant pounding. A long round wooden handle or rod is inserted into the top of the block. dairying industry in western victoria

The Uebergang family came from Silesia to Australia in 1848 and were early settlers in the Allansford area. The sons and other descendants also purchased farms in the area. The Percy Uebergang family lived at Tooram Park, Allansford from 1912 until 1992. Percy and Myrtle Uebergang's children were twins, Ray and Joyce born in 1926 who lived at Tooram Park until their deaths, Ray in 1986 and Joyce in 1992 after which the property was sold. Neither Ray nor Joyce married and following the death of her brother Joyce set up the Ray and Joyce Uebergang Foundation which supports the local community. The collection of items from their property was put into store for a number of years before being given into the care of the Cheese World Museum. The family often re-used, recycled and repaired items and examples can be seen in the museum. This Babcock tester is part of the collection of items given into the care of the Cheese World Museum. The Babcock tester was used to determine the butter fat content in milk. Prior to the use of the Babcock test farmers were paid on volume and milk was sometimes watered down to increase the supply to the factory. Once the Babcock test was introduced it provided a consistent means of paying farmers for milk supplied to the factory. The Babcock tester is significant as a scientific means of testing fat content of milk and the subsequent consistent payment mechanism to farmers. This test also provided a means for farmers to identify poor performing cows and upgrade the quality of their herd and subsequent milk supply to the factory.Four tipping metal testing tubes which revolve on a brass base. A winding handle has a wooden grip. The base and arms holding the metal tubes is painted red.OFFICIAL BABCOCK TESTERallansford, dairy farming, dairy industry, dairy processors, babcock test

Mary Tolhurst M&DHS - March 29th Dunvegan Willows Park Melton 1992 Ladies Oral History Day Graham Minns President Ray Radford MC Sound recording transfer to CD 2011 by Tom Wood Edited typescript by Wendy Barrie 2013 I was born in Rockbank, and when I was five years old moved to Toolern Vale and started and finished school there. Toolern Vale only consisted of the Store, Post Office and shop, where you could buy your fodder, and pollard supplies, the Hall, the little Church and the bluestone School. The School changed shape three times from the 1800s[1869] til the time I went there. There was four generations of my family that went there and it was destroyed by fire in 1965. Marjorie nee Myers Butler. Yes, I remember along with it your lovely Ronisch piano. Mary, quite true! Marj what you say about the Ronisch piano. When I came the age to learn music my mum and dad couldn’t really afford it, but still what parents do for their children. They had Marj go along with them and pick this lovely Ronisch piano. It was known round the district. Everyone commented about the loss that lovely piano. After leaving school it was war time, 1939, then it was work, When I was 7 year old I was put out into the cow yard. In 1940 when the soldiers were going away our milk was confiscated it had to go to Bacchus Marsh. It used to go the Sunbury to be brine cooled and then go to Melbourne. Then they took it then to the Lifeguard Milk Factory at Bacchus Marsh. It had to go as condensed milk to the soldiers. This year is 50 years of the Land Army. I was an unofficial Land Army but they still kept check on me. I went onto married life and I followed the cows right through [howls of laughter] and we went on until the 1965 fire. That’s when we got out of the cows. Marjorie asks, was Granny Watts your grandmother or great grandmother? Mary: She was my great grandmother, the midwife of Melton. The 1965 fire started ¾ of a mile above our place, Frank Ryan’s sheds were burnt and his house was saved, then it wiped the School out, the Hall, the Church the Post Office and Store and little house that was Charlie Charlton’s in the early days. Mrs Wilson’s place was saved by the Fire Brigade by pulling boards off the side, and from there it went over the hill and it was stopped at the Rockbank Railway Station. If it had of got over the railway they said it would have gone into Werribee. A lot was burnt out in that strip. Mary nee Nixon Collins: 18 houses burnt that day. Audience question, did Melton get burnt that day? Ray: No. It came down through the Toolern Vale road and cut across about a mile and a half from the cross roads at Toolern Vale from north westerly to the south east and cut through over the Keilor road. Mary: It came in across the creek at Funstons in Toolern, then through Jim Minns. Dorothy was it your place then [nee Knox Beaty] to Ken Beatty’s and from there it went through to Doug McIntosh’s and to Cockbills and the wind changed and it came across to the railway line, and that is where they stopped it. [the cause of the fire was controversial, they had been burning off the night before and there was some talk of someone starting it. It was very hot and very strong wind, it was a terrible day] Ray: When the fire went through McIntosh’s they had a haystack on the north side of their house and the haystack got caught and the fire burnt a hole through the side of the house and the boys pyjamas on the bed. The house was saved. It came through like and express train roaring at you, I was at McIntosh’s when it went roaring past. You couldn’t see, dust and ash and tremendous heat. The fire started about 12 o’clock Jack [husband] said to me, fire, I said where, where? Just up the road, what have I got to do? and he went out and he had gone to the fire and left me. I tried to get the animals and I put out buckets of water, putting the buckets of water out saved my life. Chas Jones and another friend of his came in and they picked up the buckets of water, I thought I had better get out because the fire was on the haystack up the paddock and when I went to go out through the north side of the house and couldn’t get out, I’ll go through the front gate so I went around the other side of the house. I got caught there and Chassy Jones and his friend came round carrying the bucket of water and I panicked. He threw the bucket of water over me. Well that is what saved my life because I was damp, whenever we tried to leave the ball of fire came over me and over my shoulder and my hair was scorched. Chassy Jones lost his truck and Keith Watt his big truck because he had the water tank on it and they couldn’t get out of the yard. Granny Watt’s house, the first private hospital had condemned and Jack and I pulled it down and had it moved up to Toolern and had it in the yard a fortnight and it was all burnt and we didn’t get the shed we wanted. Every 13 years right up until Ash Wednesday fires, there has always been fire close at hand. The 1952 fire went down the back of the house, the 1965 fire took the house, and the house that I live in now, it is the third house that has been on that spot. When the Hunters owned it, Mrs Hunter was nearly burnt in her bed. They had a 13 roomed house. In 1924 the house burnt down, and there was another house was built there and that was the one that burnt down. Edna: So Mary built a brick veneer house. Marjorie: like the three little pigs [laughter] Mary Tolhurst member of the Melton & District Historical Society in the Melton and Moorabool Leader local identities, local special interest groups

This Babcock tester was used in the laboratory at the Kraft cheese factory, Allansford. When it was superseded it was passed to one of the users of the machine, Les O'Callaghan, president of the Warrnambool & District Historical Society who placed it in the historical society collection. In 2009 when the historical society premises were upgraded there was insufficient room to store the tester so it was donated to Cheese World Museum. The machine was used to test the butterfat content of milk. Prior to dairy factories coming into existence farmers made butter individually on farms. There was no need for milk testing until farmers supplied factories for payment. Payment was based on a gallon of milk weighing 10lbs (pounds) and this led to richer milk, containing a high degree of butterfat for use in buttermaking, being paid at the same rate as lesser quality milk. In 1890 Stephen Moulton Babcock, an American professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, developed a method of determining the amount of butterfat in milk, thus providing a standardised and fairer system for payment. Babcock Test Process 1. 18 grams of milk (17.6ml) was put into a test tube 2. The same amount of sulphuric acid was added 3. A centrifuge at 50ºC was rotated at more than 900 revs per minute 4. The fat floating on top of the liquid in the test tube was measured The Babcock Test provided fairer compensation to farmers and also helped produce a consistent product for consumers. It also allowed for selective breeding when dairy herd testing evolved. ‘The Babcock Test is so simple that it can be used by any careful person, and it is inexpensive to operate. From the very beginning it was so complete in every detail that no change has had to be made in it.’ (Babcock Test http://www.en.wikipedia.org/wki/Babcock_test 31 March 2009) Round green metal container with opening lid. Inside houses a spinning rotor with 20 test tube holders around the outside in two circular rows.7173 BABCOCKTESTER 190allansford, dairy manufacturing, milk testing, babcock test, babcock, stephen moulton, butter, warrnambool cheese and butter factory company

Painted for the Shire of Eltham Historical Society by Audrey Cahn, a member of our Society for many years and Vice President till 1978. Audrey was the sister of the late Charis Palling, founding president of our Society. She had remained a member for many years although she had moved from her family home at Warrandyte to live with her daughter in New South Wales. Audrey had been blind for some years but maintained a local interest by having our Newsletter read to her. Audrey's associations with Warrandyte started because her father Professor Osbourne had bought 60 acres in 1904. " Gold mining was beginning to die out and Warrandyte was a decaying area. Land was cheap because of the lack of transport and the soil was poor for farming” Audrey said. Audrey first attended school in the city at the Church of England Girls Grammar School and was always a bit rebellious. “If I felt some restrictions were unfair or some judgement unjust, I resented it”. Audrey got into Agricultural Science at Melbourne University and in 1928 was the second women to get such a degree. Audrey married in 1926, and later divorced Leslie Cahn an architect. They had twin daughters whom she left with her parents in Warrandyte while she studied dietetics during the depression. She found employment as a microbiologist at the Kraft/Walker Milk and Cheese Factory in Drouin - she drove home at weekends to see her daughters who were then at boarding school. During the war Audrey was in charge of catering at the Heidelberg Military Hospital – again the appointment of a women caused some unrest. She was in the army for more than 4 years and achieved the rank of General which-made her the most highly-ranked-woman at the hospital. After the war she became a senior lecturer in Dietetics at Melbourne University, again being aware of the limitations her gender brought to promotion possibilities. During her time at the university, she undertook a series of studies in nutritional biochemistry. Of especial note is the analysis of common dietary foods so that the composition and calorific value, the data that was needed for inclusion in Food tables - that professional sports people and weight-watchers so avidly follow today! She was an early proponent of the need to reduce fat intake and to substitute saturated fats with polyunsaturated fatty acids. In the 1950's Audrey and fellow workers established norms for the growth of Australian children to be compared with British and American children. Over 17 years they concluded that Australian children were overweight and inactive - what is new! She bought a cottage in Warrandyte as her home. In 1968 she retired to further develop her other interests as a potter and painter. Audrey was a foundation member of the group of potters that set up Potters Cottage. Audrey died in 2008 aged 102. (Ref:Newsletter No. 185 March 2009)art, artwork, audrey cahn, eltham, old bakery, york street

Mary Tolhurst M&DHS - March 29th Dunvegan Willows Park Melton 1992 Ladies Oral History Day Graham Minns President Ray Radford MC Sound recording transfer to CD 2011 by Tom Wood Edited typescript by Wendy Barrie 2013 I was born in Rockbank, and when I was five years old moved to Toolern Vale and started and finished school there. Toolern Vale only consisted of the Store, Post Office and shop, where you could buy your fodder, and pollard supplies, the Hall, the little Church and the bluestone School. The School changed shape three times from the 1800s[1869] til the time I went there. There was four generations of my family that went there and it was destroyed by fire in 1965. Marjorie nee Myers Butler. Yes, I remember along with it your lovely Ronisch piano. Mary, quite true! Marj what you say about the Ronisch piano. When I came the age to learn music my mum and dad couldn’t really afford it, but still what parents do for their children. They had Marj go along with them and pick this lovely Ronisch piano. It was known round the district. Everyone commented about the loss that lovely piano. After leaving school it was war time, 1939, then it was work, When I was 7 year old I was put out into the cow yard. In 1940 when the soldiers were going away our milk was confiscated it had to go to Bacchus Marsh. It used to go the Sunbury to be brine cooled and then go to Melbourne. Then they took it then to the Lifeguard Milk Factory at Bacchus Marsh. It had to go as condensed milk to the soldiers. This year is 50 years of the Land Army. I was an unofficial Land Army but they still kept check on me. I went onto married life and I followed the cows right through [howls of laughter] and we went on until the 1965 fire. That’s when we got out of the cows. Marjorie asks, was Granny Watts your grandmother or great grandmother? Mary: She was my great grandmother, the midwife of Melton. The 1965 fire started ¾ of a mile above our place, Frank Ryan’s sheds were burnt and his house was saved, then it wiped the School out, the Hall, the Church the Post Office and Store and little house that was Charlie Charlton’s in the early days. Mrs Wilson’s place was saved by the Fire Brigade by pulling boards off the side, and from there it went over the hill and it was stopped at the Rockbank Railway Station. If it had of got over the railway they said it would have gone into Werribee. A lot was burnt out in that strip. Mary nee Nixon Collins: 18 houses burnt that day. Audience question, did Melton get burnt that day? Ray: No. It came down through the Toolern Vale road and cut across about a mile and a half from the cross roads at Toolern Vale from north westerly to the south east and cut through over the Keilor road. Mary: It came in across the creek at Funstons in Toolern, then through Jim Minns. Dorothy was it your place then [nee Knox Beaty] to Ken Beatty’s and from there it went through to Doug McIntosh’s and to Cockbills and the wind changed and it came across to the railway line, and that is where they stopped it. [the cause of the fire was controversial, they had been burning off the night before and there was some talk of someone starting it. It was very hot and very strong wind, it was a terrible day] Ray: When the fire went through McIntosh’s they had a haystack on the north side of their house and the haystack got caught and the fire burnt a hole through the side of the house and the boys pyjamas on the bed. The house was saved. It came through like and express train roaring at you, I was at McIntosh’s when it went roaring past. You couldn’t see, dust and ash and tremendous heat. The fire started about 12 o’clock Jack [husband] said to me, fire, I said where, where? Just up the road, what have I got to do? and he went out and he had gone to the fire and left me. I tried to get the animals and I put out buckets of water, putting the buckets of water out saved my life. Chas Jones and another friend of his came in and they picked up the buckets of water, I thought I had better get out because the fire was on the haystack up the paddock and when I went to go out through the north side of the house and couldn’t get out, I’ll go through the front gate so I went around the other side of the house. I got caught there and Chassy Jones and his friend came round carrying the bucket of water and I panicked. He threw the bucket of water over me. Well that is what saved my life because I was damp, whenever we tried to leave the ball of fire came over me and over my shoulder and my hair was scorched. Chassy Jones lost his truck and Keith Watt his big truck because he had the water tank on it and they couldn’t get out of the yard. Granny Watt’s house, the first private hospital had condemned and Jack and I pulled it down and had it moved up to Toolern and had it in the yard a fortnight and it was all burnt and we didn’t get the shed we wanted. Every 13 years right up until Ash Wednesday fires, there has always been fire close at hand. The 1952 fire went down the back of the house, the 1965 fire took the house, and the house that I live in now, it is the third house that has been on that spot. When the Hunters owned it, Mrs Hunter was nearly burnt in her bed. They had a 13 roomed house. In 1924 the house burnt down, and there was another house was built there and that was the one that burnt down. Edna: So Mary built a brick veneer house. Marjorie: like the three little pigs [laughter] Collins - Mary M &DHS - March 29th 1992 Ladies oral history day at Dunvegan, Willows Park Melton. Graham Minns President Ray Radford MC Sound recording transferred to CD 2011 Edited typescript by Wendy Barrie 2013 Mary Collins nee Nixon born in Terang 1907 down in the Western District and we shifted to Melton when I was 5 and a half then I started school here in Melton, and spent all my school life at Melton State School, next to the Church of England, it’s called the Primary School now. I got my Qualifying and Merit Certificate then I left School because there wasn’t a High School. When I was 16 I got and job in the Melton Post Office and I worked there, I was the first girl in Melton to deliver the mail, and worked on the telephone and the Bank business. Mrs Ross and myself behind the counter, there were about 500 – 600 people in the Shire at that time and now when I go into the new Post Office there is 36,000 here there’s still 2 people behind the counter [laughter from the audience] and wait in a queue right out to the door. Times haven’t changed much have they! There was a manual telephone and you had to ring the handle, and there were eight subscribers when I went there and when I left there were 46 I had coaxed that number to join the telephone, even the police station didn’t have the phone on. The two Hotels and the two Chaff mills and Mr Ernie Barrie, Parkers the butcher, the Shire Office was No 8, and the Police house was next to the Courthouse on the corner. They were number 9. I can remember a lot of the numbers still. The Post Office was the Agency for the Commonwealth Bank [comment from audience member] I used to do the Bank business too, I left after four years there, mother wasn’t very well. The Inspector who used to come up to the Post Office asked me if I would take up casual Post Mistress and to go around the different districts but I refused and when Mrs Ross’s holidays were due I was the replacement. I wasn’t 21. I loved my work meeting everybody and most people had horse and jinkers and when the elderly would come in there would be Mr Tom Morrow, he only had one arm and Mrs Dunn came from Bulman’s road in their horse and jinker. They were elderly I would see them pull up out the front and quickly get their mail and run out to them because they didn’t have to get out of the jinker to tie up their horse. If someone had a baby in arms I would tear out and hold the baby while they got down. Mrs Ross was very very strict. I had to sweep the Post Office, she had a couple of mats and there would be a threepence or a sixpence under the mats show she knew whether I lifted the mat, I was whether I was honest or not. Graham: How much were your wages? I got 27/7 pence a week for a 52 hour week. I had to work every holiday except Good Friday and Christmas Day and even when it was Monday holiday I always had to go to work from 9am - !0 am, the Post Office was always open. In the winter I had to wait until twenty past six in case there were any telegrams to deliver. I delivered them on a push bike. One time Tom Barrie told me this years afterwards. I used to go home for lunch. We lived on the Keilor road and I used to ride my bike home. On the hot days the boys used to go and swim in the swimming pool down near a turn in the creek there was a hole where the boys would swim in the nude, they didn’t have any bathers and they didn’t have any watches in those days. Tom Barrie said they always used to watched for me as I was always about 3 minutes past 1, my lunch hour was from 1-2. One particular day they missed seeing me and swam on, and of course they were all late for school when they got back and were all kept in a night. I did get a fortnight holiday. I loved my work and I knew everyone in the district right from Toolern Vale to the Marsh and everybody at Melton South. Did you listen into conversations on the Switchboard? Oh no. [laughter] Melton did not have electricity then. I had to fill the lamps everyday with kerosene. The Staughton Memorial was outside the Post Office. It had four posts with the chain looped around it, and that’s where the people used to tie up their horses. Marjorie nee Myers Butler comments about sitting and swinging on the chains. Mr Fred Coburn lit the acetylene gas light in the Memorial. It was the only streetlight in Melton. There was no electricity until 1939. Ray Radford comments about another gas street light which was on the corner of Station road. [later] Mary passes around her school photos. Mary mentions the names of those who have passed away, Maisie McDonald, ,Marian Wraith, Hilda McCreey, and Valda McDonald. I have written the names on the back. Marjorie comments about Marie Jongebloed and Greta are the only two girls left out of big family of ten I think there were [hesitates] 4 or 5 girls and the rest were boys. Mary. Flora Woodley, Dorrie Flynn and Margaret McDonald are still alive. They are my age we were all born about 1907. Marjorie points out herself in a later photo [1921 and 1922 School ] Mary mentions the name Walsh and identyfies following names, the Parker boys, Ken Beaty, Malc and Linda Cameron, Maisie Mc Donald, Ted Radford, George Nixon, Norman Minns, he was later the Shire Secretary of Werribee. One of the Woodley girls. [Maisie Arthur] Marjorie: Rosie Shearwood, June Whiting Mary. Lily Mc Donald, she has passed away. Isabel Harrison nee Tinkler, she lives at Werribee, Doreen Rogers, Marjorie Walker, Jess McIntosh, Mary Gillespie. Mr Malone was the Junior teacher Mr Roe and Miss Cooke. Fred Myers, my sister [Elizabeth] and the year was 1921. Myers (Barrie) School Photo Collection. Many of the names were identified at the 1970 Centenary of Melton State School No. 430. Edna Barrie organised, compiled and typed the lists to accompany these photos for the year 1921. The 1922 photo shows the higher grades. Ladies Oral History Day event held by Melton and District Historical Society, article featured in the Telegraphlocal identities, local special interest groups